


Cosmos And Wrinkles

by dragonshost



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, elderly couple, end of life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29236167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonshost/pseuds/dragonshost
Summary: At the end of her life, Ino thinks about her wife.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	Cosmos And Wrinkles

A quiet knock sounded on the door, and Ino looked up with tired eyes. “Come in,” she called out, her voice cracking at her first use of it for the day. Setting down her book on her lap, Ino rested her wrinkled and sun-spotted hands beside it.

“Ino! I’m surprised you’re awake this early.” Time had been much kinder to her visitor, Sakura’s hair still vibrantly pink many years past when it should have faded to silver like Ino’s had, and she possessed only half as many wrinkles. Though perhaps that was largely thanks to the yin seal, the purple diamond stark on Sakura’s wide forehead. Ino rather liked it - it filled the empty space there as if it had always been meant to. And she did like to joke about having a wife much younger than her with the nurses, despite that it was common knowledge that the head of the hospital and her most precious patient were in fact born the same year.

“Haven’t slept yet,” Ino confessed to her beloved, accepting Sakura’s greeting hug and kiss on the forehead. “And I wanted to watch the sunrise.”

Sakura clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “You need your rest, Ino.”

The old woman scoffed. “I’ll have all the time in the world to rest once I’m dead,” she joked.

Her wife flinched slightly at the jest. Sakura hated it when Ino joked about her inevitable passing-away. Which Ino found to be utterly ridiculous, honestly. It was a fact that no one had yet achieved immortality (although a few had certainly given the endeavor a decent shot), and Sakura had been a medical ninja for almost eighty years now! She should be used to the idea by now that Ino’s days were numbered. Literally, now, what with her heart gasping and wheezing like it had been the past few days.

Instead of chastising Ino for the ill-thought joke, Sakura busied herself with the flower vase on Ino’s dresser. “I brought you some fresh Cosmos for your room,” she said, with a soft, fond gaze at her partner. “Thought it might brighten it up a little in here.”

“They do. Thank you, dear.” Ino smiled, wistfulness in her clouded blue eyes. Even after all these years, the flowers that she had given Sakura all those years ago still remained her favorite. And Sakura’s, too. They reminded her dearly of her wife. But with their appearance, she couldn’t help but be reminded, too, of the years they spent apart - fighting over a silly crush on a (in hindsight) silly boy. It was that many more years that they could have spent cherishing each other. And Ino found that the closer her clock ticked towards the end, the more she wished they had had that time together too.

Sakura sat down on the chair beside the hospital bed, and reached for Ino’s hand. She wrapped her fingers around Ino’s and held it. “Last night after I left, I saw Naruto doing something so weird, you won’t even believe me.”

As Sakura launched into her story, Ino’s eyes never left her beloved’s, memorizing every last line on her face, every last strand of pink hair.

There was no point in dwelling on what might have been. Instead, she would try to cherish Sakura even more now.

Every last second spent with the love of her life counted. And she would make sure that she got as many of them as she could.


End file.
